“That's not who I am, but at the same time, it's nut-cutting time and it's time for us to step up," Maualuga said.
The fourth-year player leads the Bengals in tackles with 71, but he has often been out of position and has been slow in coverage.
Lewis has publicly defended Maualuga’s play, the most recent case was last week, but the fact that he also singled out the fourth-year player is an indication that those days might be over.
Said Maualuga about Lewis comments of him wanting to be more of a leader and having an edge as a leader, Maualuga interpreted them as: "Show up in the huddle and be like, 'Guys, let's get things going' and this and that. But I'm not going to (berate) any guy on my defense or tell him that you're slacking, pull yourself together, things like that. I just make sure that everyone's on the same page, that we can all practice with the same tempo and not get down on one person or two guys. I think everything will work itself out and we'll get it going after this week.”

Folks around here didn't much care for Dhani; but, there was no question who the leader of the D was while he was here.

I remember at TC he was always mixing it up with somebody on the offense (remember him and Cook getting in a scuffle). That's what Marvin wants out of Rey; however, it is something Rey is incapable of providing.

At USC, where he was NOT the best linebacker, he still got the team fired up. But Marvin is no Pete Carrol and the NFL is not NCAA.

Marvin is still looking for a Ray Lewis but they're few and far between. Burfict might actually turn into the guy.

Ever been on a team with a guy who tackles LOUD? I mean using his voice when he hits. Combination grunt and rebel yell and then a Clay Matthews flex. Rey needs to find that in his gut.

Maualuga has played 2 more games than Burfict, and Burfict is playing WILL for the first time in his football life.

I suspect as Burfict continues to learn the WILL position that Burfict will continue to play faster and faster. It seems to me that Burfict will have more tackles than Maualuga by year's end.

There were a couple plays against the Steelers where Burfict diagnosed the play, shot the gap, and made a tackle for little-to-no gain. All the while, Maualuga sat idle and watched Burfict shoot Maualuga's gap. Specifically, Burfict stopping Chris Rainey in the 3rd quarter at 3:58 to go. Burfict ran forward in his gap, saw Rainey cut back to Maualuga's gap, Burfict shot forward and tackled Rainey for no gain. After Burfict seemingly gobbled up Rainey, Maualuga then moved forward to attempt to tackle Rainey.

In my view, this play epitomizes the differences between Burfict & Maualuga.

On the next play, Maualuga is credited for an assisted tackle, but Burfict totally stopped the receiver from moving forward. Again, Maualuga is quite good at hitting a stationary target.

At USC, Maualuga was sandwiched between Clay Matthews & Brian Cushing; both Matthews & Cushing have had GREAT early NFL careers.

At USC, Maualuga had a perfect storm. Great play in front of him. Great play behind him. And great play beside him.

When everyone else is nearly perfect, Maualuga looks good.

Cushing and Rivers That is an issue sometimes when you draft guys from a college team that has a bunch of 5 star guys. In his defense he looked like a different player at USC, he got here was told to slow down on the field got hurt quite drinking and we have the new Rey M.

I could really care less about how he comes off to the media. I could really care less about the whole thing of making the "leadership" discussion public(seems kind of silly not to do it behind closed doors but oh well). I just want to see elite football personally, and so far Marv has always fallen short. He is good at creating an average to above average team and that's all.

Specialized knowledge. Sociology, biology, engineering, etc. It doesn't matter the field, we all know things others don't know, and don't know things others know. I don't see how him graduating in sociology is supposed to be a slight.

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